Iowa Winter Quotes

I travelled through the Northwest considerably during the winter of 1860-61. We had customers in all the little towns in southwest Wisconsin, southeast Minnesota and northeast Iowa. These generally knew I had been a captain in the regular army and had served through the Mexican war. Consequently wherever I stopped for the night, some of the people would come to the public house where I was, and sit till a late hour discussing the probabilities of the future.

LAST summer I happened to be crossing the plains of Iowa in a season of intense heat, and it was my good fortune to have for a traveling companion James Quayle Burden—Jim Burden, as we still call him in the West. He and I are old friends—we grew up together in the same Nebraska town—and we had much to say to each other. While the train flashed through never-ending miles of ripe wheat, by country towns and bright-flowered pastures and oak groves wilting in the sun, we sat in the observation car, where the woodwork was hot to the touch and red dust lay deep over everything. The dust and heat, the burning wind, reminded us of many things. We were talking about what it is like to spend one's childhood in little towns like these, buried in wheat and corn, under stimulating extremes of climate: burning summers when the world lies green and billowy beneath a brilliant sky, when one is fairly stifled in vegetation, in the color and smell of strong weeds and heavy harvests; blustery winters with little snow, when the whole country is stripped bare and gray as sheet-iron. We agreed that no one who had not grown up in a little prairie town could know anything about it. It was a kind of freemasonry, we said.

Oh, there's not much to tell. I served in the Ninth Iowa Infantry. That's where I met Frankie...Frank. I mean, Mr. Greerson. We were discharged almost a year go, July of last year, and stayed with my mother over the winter. And then we came here. That's about it.

Winter’s continuum – its prolonged and erratic way of mingling pleasant days with cheerless weeks – holds farm activities in somber check until that season finally breaks its hold.

When Sauk leader Black Hawk led his people back from a winter stay in Iowa to their homeland in Illinois in 1832 to plant corn, the squatter settlers there claimed they were being invaded, bringing in both Illinois militia and federal troops. The "Black Hawk War" that is narrated in history texts was no more than a slaughter of Sauk farmers. The Sauks tried to defend themselves but were starving when Black Hawk surrendered under a white flag.

Return to: U. S. Department of Agriculture ESCS/Statistics, Room 0005 So. Bldg. 14th & Independence Ave., S.W. Washington, D.C. 20250 H£AT ·-·-- ·-----··--- --- ACREAGE YIELD PRODUCTION By States, 1866- 1943 • All wheat • Winter wheat • All spring wheat • Spring wheat other than durum • Durum wheat U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Agricultural Marketing Service February 1955 STATISTICAL BULLETIN NO. 158 INDEX :Spring :Spring . . All Wheat . . . . All :Wheat STATE: All ; Winter; Spring: Other : Durum: STATE All ; Winter ; Spring : Other :Durum :Wheat Wheat Wheat : Than • Wheat; Wheat : Wheat : Wheat :Than Wheat : Durum: : Durum: Page Page Page .Page Page Page Page Page Page Page Ala, 17 40 Nev. 24 47 62 Ariz. 23 46 N.H. 3 Ark. 18 41 N.J. 4 28 Calif, 25 48 N.Mex. 22 45 61 Colo. 22 45 61 N.Y. 4 27 51 Conn. 3 N.C. 14 37 Del. 12 35 N.Dak. 10 57 66 68 Ga. 15 38 Ohio 6 29 53 Idaho 21 44 60 Okla. 19 42 Ill. 7 30 54 Oreg. 25 48 63 Ind. 6 30 53 Pa, 5 28 52 Iowa 9 32 56 S.C. 15 38 Kans. 11 34 58 S.Dak. 10 33 57 66 68 Ky. 16 39 Tenn. 17 40 Maine 2 50 Texas 19 42 Md. 13 36 Utah 23 46 62 Mich. 7 31 54 Vt, 3 51 -- Minn. 8 32 55 65 67 Va. 13 36 Miss. 18 41 Wash. 24 47 63 Mo. 9 33 56 W.Va. 14 37 Mont. 20 43 59 Wise. 8 31 55 Nebr. 11 34 58 Wyo. 21 44 60 REGIONS REGIONS N.Atl. 5 29 52 S.Cent, 20 43 N. Cent. 12 35 59 West. 26 49 64 S.Atl. 16 39 u.s. 2 27 50 65 67 WHEAT BY CLASSES - - - - Page 69 * * * * * For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington 25, D.' C. - Price 40 cents WHEAT: ACREAGE, YIELD, AND PRODUCTION, BY STATES, 1866 - 1943 Presented in this report are estimates of acreage planted and harvested, yield per harvested acre, and produ2tion for all wheat, winter wheat, all spring wheat, durum wheat, and other spring wheat. Tables are presented for each kind of wheat estimated for each State. for the Geographic Divisions, and for the United States. Also included is a table, for the United States only, showing production of wheat by classes. Estimates of all wheat cover the period from 1866 (or from the first year in which estimates were made) to 1943, inclusive; estimates of winter wheat and ali spring wheat for States growing both kinds coveT the period from 1909, when separate series were initiated, to 1943, inclusive; estimates of durum wheat and other spring wheat cover the period from 1919 to 1943, inclusive; the estimates by classes cover the period from 1919 to 1949, inclusive. The series for planted acreage begins in 1909 for winter wheat, in 1919 for all spring wheat and all wheat; and in 1926 for durum and other spring wheat. Estimates for the period 1944-49, except wheat by classes, are contained in Statistica,l Bulletin Number 108, issued in March 1952 • Estimates since 1950 for all series are presented in the Annual Summary of Crop Production published in December of each year. ALL W'-!EAT: A ::REAGE, n-.:LD, MD PRODUCTION, 1866 - 1943 UNITED STATES ---7---- 1 Yi9ld: i'---- -,:-- -,---- -,-Yie!d_:_---- :,---:-- -A~r;a;e--- 7 Yieid I----- : Acreage : per : Pro- :: : Acreage 1 per : Pro- :: : __________ : per : ProYear : hd~- : har- : ductivn ::Year : har- : har- : duction ::Year : : : nar- : duction : vested : vested: :: : vested : vested: :: : Planted :Harvested: vested: ___ .:._ ___ ..,. .:_ _a~r~.!. ____ -·~ ___ : _____ : _ _!C!e_: _____ .!.=- __ ..!. ____ .!. ____ ..:. _a_£r~ 1. ____ _ Thous. Bu. ~··us. bu. Thous. Bu. Thous. bu. Thous. Bu. Thous. bu. 1<'366 1867 1368 lil69 lil70 1371 11372 1873 1374 1875 1876 1377 1378 1879 1880 1·3Bl B82 1883 1884 1885 1986 1887 1988 1889

By then, Johnny was in college in lily-white Iowa on a full academic scholarship, never needing a cent from Grandmother’s estate—and the story of his uncle’s disappearance didn’t sit right.